Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC (born January 28, 1968(1968-01-28)) is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter.[2]

She is known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range.[3] As of 2006, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide.[4][5] Her best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards (out of four nominations) and eight Juno Awards. In addition to her personal artistic efforts, she founded the Lilith Fair tour, which showcased female musicians during the late 1990s.

Biography

Sarah McLachlan was born on January 28, 1968(1968-01-28), and adopted in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As a child, she took voice lessons, along with studies in classical piano and guitar. When she was 17 years old and still a student at Queen Elizabeth High School, she fronted a short-lived rock band called The October Game. One of the band's songs, "Grind", credited as a group composition, can be found on the independent Flamingo Records release Out of the Fog and the CD Out of the Fog Too. It has yet to be released elsewhere. Her high school yearbook predicted that she was "destined to become a famous rock star."

Following The October Game's first concert at Dalhousie University opening for Moev, McLachlan was offered a recording contract with Vancouver-based independent record label Nettwerk by Moev's Mark Jowett. McLachlan's parents insisted she finish high school and complete one year of studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before moving to Vancouver and embarking on a new life as a recording artist, and McLachlan finally signed to Nettwerk two years later before having written a single song.

In 1994 McLachlan became the target of an odd lawsuit. She was sued by Uwe Vandrei, an obsessed fan from Ottawa, Ontario, who alleged that his letters to her had been the basis of the single "Possession".[citation needed] The lawsuit was also challenging for the Canadian legal system—Vandrei was a self-admitted stalker whose self-acknowledged goal in filing the lawsuit was to be near McLachlan physically. Consequently, special precautions were planned to ensure McLachlan's safety if at any time she had to be in the same location as Vandrei. The lawsuit never came to trial, however, as Vandrei was found dead in an apparent suicide before the trial began. This topic was explored at length in Canadian author Judith Fitzgerald's book, Building A Mystery: The Story of Sarah McLachlan & Lilith Fair.

In 1997, Sarah McLachlan married her drummer, Ashwin Sood, in Jamaica. McLachlan lost her mother to cancer in December 2001, while McLachlan herself was pregnant. McLachlan gave birth to a daughter, whom she named India Ann Sushil Sood, on April 6, 2002, in Vancouver. By this time, McLachlan had already completed three-quarters of the production on her next record, Afterglow. On June 22, 2007, she gave birth to her second daughter, Taja Summer Sood, in Vancouver. McLachlan announced her separation from Ashwin Sood in September 2008.[6]

Musical career

Advertisements

Touch and Solace

The signing with Nettwerk prompted McLachlan to move to Vancouver, British Columbia. There she recorded the first of her albums, Touch, in 1988, which received both critical and commercial success and included the hit song "Vox". During this period she also contributed to an album by Moev, and embarked on her first national concert tour as an opening act for The Grapes of Wrath.

Her 1991 album, Solace, was her mainstream breakthrough in Canada, spawning the hit singles "The Path of Thorns (Terms)" and "Into the Fire". Solace also marked the beginning of her partnership with Pierre Marchand. Marchand and McLachlan have been collaborators ever since, with Marchand producing all of McLachlan's albums and occasionally co-writing songs.

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, and Surfacing

1993's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was an immediate smash hit in Canada. From her Nettwerk connection, her piano version of the song "Possession" was included on the first Due South soundtrack in 1996. Over the next two years, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy quietly became McLachlan's international breakthrough as well, scaling the charts in a number of countries.

In 1993, Darryl Neudorf filed a lawsuit against McLachlan and her label, Nettwerk, alleging that he had made a significant and uncredited contribution to the songwriting on Touch, and alleging that he wasn't paid properly for work done on Solace. The judge in this suit eventually ruled in McLachlan's favour on the songs; though Neudorf may have contributed to the songwriting, neither regarded each other as joint authors. The judge ruled in Neudorf's favour on the payment issue.

Following the success from Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, McLachlan returned in 1997 with Surfacing, her best selling album to date. Earning her two Grammy Awards and four Juno Awards, the album has since sold over 11 million copies worldwide and brought her much international success. Still in the spotlight from the album, McLachlan launched the highly popular Lilith Fair tour. Her song "Angel"—inspired by the fatal overdose of Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin—made sales skyrocket. In Spring 1998, the motion picture City of Angels featured "Angel". It became the No. 1 album on the Billboard chart. More than five months after the movie disappeared from the theaters, City of Angels: Music from the Motion Picture remained firmly entrenched among Billboard's top 40 albums. This soundtrack earned quadruple-platinum status.[7]

Lilith Fair

In 1996 McLachlan became frustrated with concert promoters and radio stations that refused to feature two female musicians in a row.[8] Bucking conventional industry wisdom, she booked a successful tour for herself and Paula Cole. At least one of their appearances together – in McLachlan's home town, on September 14, 1996 – went by the name "Lilith Fair" and included performances by McLachlan, Cole, Lisa Loeb and Michelle McAdorey, formerly of Crash Vegas.

The next year, McLachlan founded the Lilith Fair tour, taking Lilith from the medieval Jewish legend that Lilith was Adam's first wife.

In 1997, Lilith Fair, featuring McLachlan as one of the headlining acts, garnered a $16 million gross, making it the top-grossing of any touring festival.[8] Among all concert tours for that year, it was the 16th highest grossing.[8]Lilith Fair tour brought together 2 million people over its three-year history and raised more than $7 million for charities. It was the most successful all-female music festival in history, one of the biggest music festivals of the 1990s, and helped launch the careers of several well-known female artists. Subsequent Lilith Fairs followed in 1998 and 1999 before the tour was discontinued.

Hiatus

In 1998, in addition to performing her own set, she performed a cover of "Sad Lisa" with rock band Phish at the annual Bridge School Benefit concert in California, hosted by Neil Young, after which McLachlan began an extended period away from recording or touring. Six years elapsed between the release of Surfacing and that of her next studio album, Afterglow.

In 1997, McLachlan co-wrote and provided guest vocals on the Delerium song "Silence" for their album Karma. This song achieved a massive amount of top 40 airplay when released as a single in late 2000 and also featured on the soundtrack for the movie Brokedown Palace. In 2001, McLachlan provided background vocals, guitar, and piano on the closing track "Love Is" from Stevie Nicks' eighth solo album, Trouble in Shangri-La, in addition to drawing the dragon used for the "S" in Stevie's name on the album cover. In May 2002, her duet with Bryan Adams was released on the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron soundtrack. She sang harmonies and played the piano on the song "Don't Let Go" while Sood did the drum work.

McLachlan also participated in several concerts during her break, such as Sheryl Crow's Live from Central Park in 1999, the Arista Records twenty-fifth anniversary celebration in 2000, as well as the 2002 British Columbia Cancer Foundation Benefit Concert in memory of cancer victim Michele Bourbonnais. She participated along with four other Canadian artists: Bryan Adams, Jann Arden, Barenaked Ladies, and Chantal Kreviazuk.

Afterglow

McLachlan returned to public life and touring with her 2003 album release, Afterglow, which contained the singles "Fallen", "Stupid", and "World On Fire." Rather than shoot a conventional music video for "World On Fire", McLachlan donated all but $15 of the $150,000 budget to various charitable causes around the world and then used the video to explain how it benefited the communities that received the money.

Another live album, Afterglow Live, was released in late 2004. The CD consisted of several tracks from a full-length concert which was included in its entirety on a DVD, as well as the three music videos from Afterglow.

In 2004, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels, who credits McLachlan and her music for lifting him from a period of depression, invited her to join him on a track from his solo album. Although the album was not released until early 2006, remixes of the song "Just Like Me" were included on a number of compilations in 2005.

Wintersong

In October 2006, McLachlan released a Christmas album called Wintersong. The album included 11 new recordings, featuring covers of Joni Mitchell's "River", Gordon Lightfoot's "Song for a Winter's Night", and John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", which she recorded with her outreach children and youth choir, and seasonal favourites: "Christmas Time Is Here", "O Little Town of Bethlehem", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", "Silent Night", "The First Noel", and "Greensleeves (What Child Is This?)", among others. The title track is an original work of McLachlan's.

Wintersong debuted at No. 42 on the Billboard 200 album chart the week ending 4 November 2006. It has peaked at #7 and has sold 759,162 copies in the U.S. to date. For the week of 5 December 2006, it was the #1 album on iTunes. Worldwide the album has sold 1.1 million copies to date. It has been certified Platinum in the U.S. and 2x Platinum in Canada.

Rereleases, Rarities Vol 2, and Greatest Hits

On October 3, 2006, the live album Mirrorball was re-released as Mirrorball: The Complete Concert. This release contains 2 discs that span over 2 hours of a concert performed in Portland, Oregon, in April 1998.

McLachlan released a greatest hits album, Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan, on October 7, 2008. On August 12, 2008, she released a new song from the album, "U want me 2," a mid-tempo contemplative love song, as a digital single on iTunes; also accompanied with a video performance. McLachlan also admitted the song was inspired by the dissolution of her marriage, which she announced in September 2008, during initial promotion. Being quietly released as a single on 3 February 2009 the other new song found on the album, "Don't Give Up on Us", signaled a wrap.

The Laws of Illusion and Lilith Fair 2010

A new single, "One Dream," was released on September 29, 2009 and is a rumored contender for the official theme song of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.[10] Work on a new full-length album continues with an anticipated release in 2010 per an interview between McLachlan and Yamaha All Access Magazine Summer Edition. It is not yet known if "One Dream" will be included on the album. The Lilith Fair also has a green light for 2010. Sarah wishes to include some of the original acts plus many more new acts since the original Lilith Fair as enthusiasm among its originators anticipates 2010 during initial announcements of an engaged female repertoire including McLachlan's along with some of the festival's recent posits of interest. It is confirmed by her manangement that her next CD, due out on June 15th, will be called The Laws of Illusion.

Guitars and equipment

For years, Sarah McLachlan's main stage guitar has been a late-1970s Larrivée C-10 with rosewood back and sides, a spruce top, and a Florentine cutaway. The guitar is amplified with a Fishman Rare Earth Blend (which combines a magnetic pickup and an internal mic), running through a Radial JDV Mk3 active DI. She has also performed with Canadian-made Morgan guitars, and has reported to be trying out Taylor models with Expression System electronics.

McLachlan strings her guitars with phosphor-bronze or vintage bronze Dean Markleys. She uses medium-lights (.012—.054) for her guitars in E A D G A D and D A D G A D tunings. Sometimes she uses lights (.011—.046) and raises E A D G A D a whole step so her capo positions can be two frets lower. For instance, in the past she played "Building a Mystery" in E A D G A D with a capo at the seventh fret, but now she tunes to F# B E A B E and capoes at the fifth fret. McLachlan's capo of choice is a Dunlop C-Four.[11]

Awards and achievements

McLachlan has been nominated for twenty-one Juno Awards and awarded eight. In 1992, her video for "Into the Fire" was selected as best music video. In 1998, she won Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year (along with Pierre Marchand), Single of the Year for "Building a Mystery", and Album of the Year for Surfacing. In 2000, she won an International Achievement award and in 2004, won Pop Album of the Year for Afterglow and again shared the Songwriter of the Year award with Pierre Marchand for the singles "Fallen", "World on Fire", and "Stupid."

She has also won three Grammy Awards. She was awarded Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1997 for "Building a Mystery" and again in 1999 for the live version of "I Will Remember You." She also scored Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1997 for "Last Dance." Among these, she is credited for various nominations.

Her song "Building A Mystery" came in at 91 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s.[12]

McLachlan has been extensively profiled by media including cover stories for Rolling Stone, Time magazine, Entertainment Weekly and Flare, a Canadian fashion magazine.

Through her career, she has also received many awards, primarily in recognition of her efforts in launching Lilith Fair. She was awarded the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Visionary Award in 1998 for advancing the careers of women in music. In 1999, she was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada by then-Governor GeneralAdrienne Clarkson in recognition of her successful recording career, her role in Lilith Fair, and the charitable donations she made to women's shelters across Canada. In 2001, she was inducted to the Order of British Columbia.

Philanthropy

In early 2005, McLachlan took part in a star-studded tsunami disaster relief telethon on NBC. On 29 January McLachlan was a headliner for a benefit concert in Vancouver along with other Canadian superstars such as Avril Lavigne and Bryan Adams. The show also featured a performance by the Sarah McLachlan Musical Outreach Choir & Percussion Ensemble, a children's choir and percussion band from the aforementioned Vancouver outreach program. In addition to her own headliner show she also joined Delerium live on stage for their first-ever performance of 'Silence'. The concert was titled One World: The Concert for Tsunami Relief, and raised approximately $3.6 million for several Canadian aid agencies working in south and southeast Asia. The show was the brainchild of McLachlan's manager, Terry McBride, CEO of Nettwerk. It ran for four hours and aired live on CTV across Canada.

She is an avid supporter of the ASPCA and animal welfare. She filmed a two-minute advertisement for the organization which featured her song "Angel".[13] The advertisement's imagery of shelter animals mixed with the soundtrack and McLachlan's simple appeal for donations has raised $30 million for the ASPCA since it began to air in 2006, which allowed the organization to air appeals in higher profile prime-time cable ad slots; subsequently the organization produced a new ad for the 2008 holiday season featuring McLachlan appealing for the ASPCA over her Wintersong performance of "Silent Night", and a new ad with her was released in January 2009 featuring the song "Answer".[13]

On July 2, 2005, McLachlan participated in the Philadelphia installment of the Live 8 concerts, where she performed her hit "Angel" with Josh Groban. These concerts, which were held simultaneously in nine major cities around the world, were intended to coincide with the G8 summit to put pressure on the leaders of the world's richest nations to fight poverty in Africa by cancelling debt.

McLachlan also funds an outreach program in Vancouver that provides music education for inner city children. In 2007, the provincial government announced $500,000 in funding for the outreach program.[14]

Contents

Sourced

"I am extremely flattered that Governor Pataki has chosen me as
the recipient of this tremendous honor," Sarah McLachlan said. "I
just feel that the Lilith Fair was a terrific opportunity to create
a platform to celebrate so many great women in music today and to
get out a really positive message. I have been so fortunate as a
musician and I feel that I have a responsibility and a great
opportunity to give something back."

On receiving 'Visionary Award' from Governor George Pataki

Attributed

"I love the way you smile at me, I love the way your hands
reach out and hold me near....I believe this is heaven to no one
else but me."

"Am I faithful, am I strong, am I good enough to belong? In
your reverie a perfect girl?"

"Happiness is like a cloud, if you stare at it long enough, it
evaporates."

"Hold on, hold on to yourself, for this is gonna hurt like
hell."

"I've learned to trust myself, to listen to truth, to not be
afraid of it and to not try and hide it."

"It's an amazing luxury to say I'm 31 years old and I'm gonna
take a year off. That's pretty amazing."

"The more we take the less we become, the fortune of one man
means less for some."

"The winter here's cold and bitter, it's chilled us to the
bone. We haven't seen the sun for weeks, too long too far from
home. I feel just like I'm sinking, and I claw for solid ground.
I'm pulled down by the undertow, I never thought I could feel so
low. Oh darkness I feel like letting go. If all of the strength and
all of the courage. Come and lift me from this place. I know I
could love you much better than this."

"Time is a beautiful thing. It's like when you meet an old
lover on the street six years later and they don't look so ugly
anymore."

"I'm so tired, but I can't sleep...standing on the edge of
something much too deep...funny how I feel so much but cannot say a
word...we are screaming inside, oh, but we can't be heard...so
afraid to love you, more afraid to lose...clinging to a past that
doesn't let me choose"

"The night is my companion...solitude my guide....and I would
be the one to hold you down, kiss you so hard, I'll take your
breath away...my body aches to breathe your breath, your words keep
me alive."

"If you only try to please others, you're going to resent those
people you're trying to please; the ones who are often closest to
you. If you choose a path that you yourself want to take, then
you're going to be much kinder to the people in your life."

"In the arms of the angel, fly away from here....you are pulled
from the wreckage, of your silent reverie, you're in the arms of
the angel, may you find some comfort here..."

"Every time I'm close to you, there's too much I can't say and
you just walk away... I grieve in my condition for I cannot find
the words to say I need you so."

Others
on Sarah McLachlan

"Sarah McLachlan is not only one of today's most gifted
singer-songwriters, she is also a visionary in the music industry,"
Governor Pataki said. "Like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who penned the
Declaration of Sentiments and laid the foundation for womens
rights, Sarah McLachlan created a stage to showcase female
performers and opened the doors for many up and coming female
artists."

Governor George Pataki

"Sarah McLachlan's creation of the Lilith fair gave a
generation of female singer-songwriters an opportunity to meet,
perform together and, quite possibly, create a female-pop
revolution, Sarah's dedication to her music and to the promotion of
fellow female artists makes her the epitome of the Elizabeth Cady
Stanton Award."

Her recording company, Nettwerk, released her first album in 1988. After recording several albums, she organized the all-female music festival Lilith Fair in 1997, 1998, and 1999. Some of the money made from these concerts went to women's charities. McLachlan received the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Visionary Award in 1998 for helping women's music.

She married her drummer, Ashwin Sood, in 1997. They have a daughter, India, born in 2002.

She funds a Vancouver program that helps poor children learn music. She has played at charity concerts, such as for victims of the December 26, 2004tsunami and at the 2005 Live 8 concert in Philadelphia, USA.

Some of McLachlan's best-known songs include "The Path of Thorns", "Into the Fire", "Possession", "Building a Mystery", "Sweet Surrender", "Adia", "Angel", and "World on Fire".